Motivation for Installing Solar Panels Shifting in Australia

byJim @ AGT

Australia is by far the country with the largest number of solar panels with residential use, where one of five families has installed solar panels at their homes.

Favorable sunny weather and economic conditions have made solar panels increasingly affordable. The technology has gone through remarkable achievements and by making thin-film deposition rate monitoring tools extremely precise, it’s possible to increase solar cell production without sacrificing quality, and therefore lower the prices of solar panels.
For people in Australia, to have solar panels means that people’s motivation mostly lies in looking forward to a pollution free future, rather than saving money on electric costs.

When solar panels started booming in the country, the government offered great incentives for its citizens to install residential solar panels – besides the savings on the utility bills, residents received a nice check for selling their solar energy to the main grid. Unfortunately, now the government has tried to do anything to stop such a rapid growth of solar panels in the private sector by canceling most of its programs.

At first, the governmental rates encouraged households to install solar panels, but due to having a lot of coal, and with the utility companies bidding on its usage and pressuring the government, most of the incentives were either drastically cut or cancelled.

Surprisingly, despite all the obstacles, the photovoltaic industry is still growing within residential use in Australia. Now people are looking into leasing solar panels, and buying the energy they generate at a lower rate.

This leasing phenomenon is new for the country, however it is rather popular in the United States where more people who cannot afford solar panels but want to reduce pollution, lease solar panels without taking any risks.